Thursday, April 16, 2009

NBC Universal has partnered with the Canadian Film Center to launch a talent development and mentoring program designed to generate projects for NBC U-owned outlets from Canadian scribes. The creation of the NBC Universal Content Creator Program will be unveiled today at the CFC's 20th anniversary event held at L.A.'s London West Hollywood hotel.

The program will issue a call for script submissions from Canadian scribes, and then CFC and NBC U execs will select promising candidates to take part in the program, which will formally launch in the fall.

NBC U's TV production arm, Universal Media Studios, will appoint an exec to serve as the permanent liaison to the program, which will largely consist of forums and workshops at CFC's Toronto HQ. NBC Universal will have the option to further develop any scripts and concepts generated by participants in the program. The focus will initially be on TV programming, but the plan is to expand eventually into film.

NBC U's interest in Canada's talent pool comes after the Peacock, CBS and other nets have picked up Canadian-made series for their own skeds -- an idea that would have been unthinkable just a few years ago.

Does anyone know any more about this? Some were wondering if this is only for emerging writers, or if it's for established writers too. Why through the CFC and not the WGC?